‘This Is Us’ Creator Teases ‘Intense’ 12-Minute Scene, Reveals Jack’s Death Will Be ‘A Heartbreaking Surprise’

This Is Us fans should prepare for some powerful scenes when the NBC drama picks up the remainder of its second season in January. In an interview with Deadline, This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman revealed that there are big episodes in store for the second half of the sophomore season.

Viewers were left with a cliffhanger when the show’s midseason finale, “Number Three,” ended with Kevin (Justin Hartley) being pulled over while driving under the influence with Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) daughter, Tess (Eris Baker), hidden in the back seat.

Fogelman says the adult Pearson clan will have a major dramatic scene involving Kevin’s troubles that will be a whopping 12 minutes long. The intense scene will feature Kevin and his siblings Randall and Kate (Chrissy Metz) as well as Pearson matriarch Rebecca (Mandy Moore).

“We find Kevin in rehab and the family has arrived to hash things out in a therapy session,” Fogelman told Deadline. “It’s very loaded.”

As for the burning question regarding Pearson patriarch Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) untimely death, viewers won’t be kept in the dark much longer. Fogelman says he plans to stay true to the promise that Jack’s cause of death will be revealed this season. This Is Us fans have been given some pieces of the puzzle, including a clue that Jack potentially dies in a house fire. The full answer will come sometime in the next eight episodes, according to Fogelman.

“We promised answers in Season 2 and we have eight episodes left, and it’s all coming in short order. It will really be a heartbreaking surprise.”

In addition to the flashback scenes to Jack’s late 1990s death, This Is Us fans will see a modern-day Randall as he tries to forge a bond with his extended birth family in Memphis. According to Fogelman, Sterling K. Brown’s character will return to Memphis after visiting the Tennessee city last season with his biological dad, William (Ron Cephas Jones), in the final hours before his death.

“We have a lot of real estate from Memphis, and we’ll find our way back there,” Fogelman told Deadline.

But Fogelman also downplayed the chance of Randall tracking down his deceased birth mother’s family or her grave. The This Is Us showrunner said such events “aren’t happening this season.”

“The construct of the show is that if we want to explore her back history, we don’t have to send Randall to do it. We can just go into the story about his mother by going back in time and see how she met William.”

This Is Us was recently nominated for several Golden Globe Awards, including Best Television Drama. Brown and Metz were also nominated in the dramatic acting categories.

This Is Us returns to NBC on Tuesday, Jan. 2, with the episode “The Fifth Wheel.”